Capacitors, are well known in the art of electrical components. Capacitors typically comprise parallel plates, which act as anodes and cathodes, respectively, with a dielectric therebetween. The function of capacitors is well known and further discussion is not warranted herein.
Capacitors are typically secured to a substrate as a supporting component of an integrated circuit. A particularly relevant integrated circuit comprises a microprocessor mounted to a printed circuit board (PCB) with capacitors mounted on the opposite side of the PCB in a sandwich type arrangement. This arrangement, while long utilized in the art, is now a limiting factor in the further ongoing miniaturization and speed increase of modern day circuitry. This arrangement is now limiting due to the propensity for ceramic capacitors to form cracks, and therefore fail, when subjected to flex stresses.
It is well known that stress cracking is exacerbated in larger ceramic capacitors. As the size of a capacitor increases the separation distance between the external electrodes or terminations increases. Any flex in the substrate is therefore amplified relative to a small capacitor with close termination leads. One widely known method for preventing stress fractures is to utilize lead frames, as illustrated in FIG. 2, to elevate or suspend and mechanically isolate the capacitor. The lead frame dissipates stress thereby protecting the capacitor. This method has been widely used in the past yet the length of the lead frame is contrary to ongoing efforts to reduce thickness, inductance, and resistance thereby rendering this method obsolete for modern circuits with increased demands for thinner and lower inductance and resistance. Reducing the separation between the capacitor and substrate has been considered impossible due to problems associated with solder flowing upward and causing elimination of the mechanical independence of the leadframe system.
The present invention provides a novel capacitor presentation, which greatly decreases the propensity for stress fractures from flexing. The novel capacitor achieves these previously unobtainable goals while still maintaining the ceramic capacitor performance and higher capacitance capabilities in chips equal to or larger than E1A size 1206.